MOJO. To 25 September.

London

MOJO
by Jez Butterworth

Rosemary Branch Theatre To 25 September 2005
Tue-Fri 7.45pm Sat 7pm Sun 5pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7704 6665 (24 hour)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 September

The dangerous edge of 50s London life.Silver Johnny's a hot property, the new singing sensation of 1958 Soho's gangland drinking clubs. And he soon finds out that's a dangerous thing to be when the property-owners are like Ezra and Sam. Neither show up in the play (though Eat the Cake's production at the Rosemary Branch offers a pre-show Ezra to put the audience in their place at his place). We don't see that much of Johnny. Instead, Jez Butterworth's confident debut play gives a group of men whose function and functionality is often vague.

The opening's like suddenly finding yourself on rail-tracks, an express heading in close, sudden, loud and threatening. What it's about's never quite clear but it sets an atmosphere, uneasy, edgy, an explosion waiting for a match. Slowly things piece together, without ever slowing. And it becomes clear, as these young men argue and fight in a mood of perpetual frustration, that the up-and-down stairs of Ezra's watering-hole where they hide out in fear of a rival outfit's attack, is also a refuge. Being afraid to go out is also an excuse for sticking around in this fifties Soho nowhere.

For its first act, the cast in Gabby Vautier's pulsing revival play each moment precisely, but there's a sense of it all not quite joining up. By act two, the links are there, the pressure of the situation's showing up character faultlines. James Powell's Sweets is going round (unless he's clutching a table-leg in terror) smiling with aimless hopefulness that all will be OK, Mike Lahiffe's Potts continues his vaunting triumphalism over little victories while Ollie King's gangly Skinny remains the eternal victim, squealing or whimpering in his powerlessness. King gives the character a dignity as his genitalia receive yet another squeeze in his sideways complaint to no-one in particular that he may want kids some day.

Best of all is the late owner's son Baby, an heir-apparent with nothing to do and a lot of time to do it in, slippery and unpredictable. Apparent innocence or submission's likely too break into violent fury, his quieter moments having the low growl of deep threat in Peter Fortune's tight-reined, danger-edged performance.

Baby: Peter Fortune
Mickey: Dermot Jones
Silver Johnny: James Kirwan/Charlie Woodcock
Skinny: Ollie King
Potts: Mike Lahiffe
Sweets: James Powell

Director: Gabby Vautier
Sound/Music: Matthew Greasley

2005-09-16 13:55:04